The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Cops trial crime reporting over the Net

Sussex Police says don't email it about emergencies

  • print
  • alert

Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery

Sussex Police is trying to lighten the load on its emergency call handling service by encouraging victims of less serious crimes to report them over the Internet.

The force has set up forms on its Web site for reports of thefts at Gatwick Airport and for lost property enquiries, and a facility that allows members of the public to email PCs (police constables) from a PC. The Internet reporting facility is being introduced as part of a pilot scheme, which uses technology and networking equipment from BT and Nortel Networks.

According to a report in today's Daily Telegraph, the 999 emergency service in Sussex received 280,000 calls last year. It reports that police are investigating the use of software technologies to scan email for key words in order to identify more serious or urgent crime reports.

Sussex Police, which said that an Internet operation will not detract from the quality of its call centres, is careful to say that the service can only go so far.

On its Web site, Sussex Police said: "Do not attempt to email us about an incident in progress. In an emergency always dial 999." ®

Related Link

Sussex Police site - do not attempt to email them about an incident in progress.

Cloud storage: Lower cost and increase uptime

More from The Register

Thanks, NSA: Amazon sales of Orwell's 1984 rise 9,500%
Citizens of Oceania bone up on the new reality
 breaking news
BBC lied to Parliament about doomed £100m IT monster, thunder MPs
Axed DMI ballooned and burst while watchdogs sang Kumbaya
Microsoft to open Windows Stores inside 600 Best Buy locations
Product showcases 'must be seen to be believed'
 breaking news
Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59
Misses the release of his final work
 breaking news
What did the Lehman Brothers implosion look like to a techie?
Insider tells all about the Gnab Gib at Lehmans
It's official: 'tweet' an English word – not just in the avian sense
If the Oxford English Dictionary says it is so, then it is so
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
1-in-10 e-tomes 'are self-published'... most are 'rubbish' says book ed
Publishing man scoffs at go-it-alone writers, ursines still fouling in forests
 breaking news